Mobile terminals are managed in wireless communication systems such as GSM and UMTS. These terminals satisfy the standards that are required in order to be approved in the communication system, but an ever-increasing part of the functionality is of such a nature that it is either not standardised at all, or at least not standardised in a unified manner. Furthermore, the terminals have different properties with respect to the ability to present information and with respect to the set of services built into the terminal.
Certain parts of the settings relating to services are stored on SIM cards. It is possible for an operator to influence these before the subscription is purchased. The operator cannot normally influence the settings that are stored in the memory of the terminal before the subscriber has purchased the terminal (unless the terminal is intimately packaged with a certain specified subscription).
Furthermore, subscribers change terminals while keeping an existing subscription. It is possible that the new terminal does not have the same abilities as the previous terminal.
Manual configuration of services is generally currently required in order for these to be adapted to a particular type of terminal.
This is often experienced as complicated by many users, and it is considered to be a contributory factor to the fact that certain services are seldom or never used. It is obvious that this is a significant disadvantage with existing solutions.
Each mobile unit in a wireless communication network such as GSM or UMTS has a unique identity. The terminal itself is aware of this identity and it is primarily intended to be used as theft-protection. The network can request the identity from the terminal during communication with the network before further communication is permitted.
This terminal identity, IMEI, contains information about the manufacturer, model number, serial number and, in certain cases, also the current version of software.
There is currently no possibility for an external service (that is, a service outside of BSC/RNC/MSC/SGSN) to request this identity.